Favorite songs from 2024!

 It was a good year for music! Want proof? Well my list of favorite songs for this year has 10 songs instead of the normal 5. I think this music summarizes the "cool dad" vibe I am trying to put out there, but you can be the judge. As usual, most of the songs were from 2024, but a few were just ones I learned about in 2024 for the first time!

• Northern Attitude (Noah Kahan & Hozier): This song is great. It's about getting older, as is all good media. Don't believe whatever nonsense they have on Genius.com.
• Apple (Charli xcx): I have to be honest, brat didn't really do it for me, I think I have gotten a bit too old, but this song is a good one.
• Deeper Well (Kacey Musgraves): Kacey Musgraves has a pretty good Indie Country thing going.
• Close to You (Gracie Abrams): Did you know Gracie Abrams is JJ Abrams' daughter?!
• Illusion (Dua Lipa)
• Please Please Please (Sabrina Carpenter): This whole album is good and you should given it a listen. But the backstory to this one (her real-life now ex boyfriend is an Irish actor who causes a big scene every time they go out) is too funny.

Honorary entries that came out before 2024:

• Chaise Longue (Wet Leg): All day long
• The Place That Makes Me Happy (The Moss): I am going camping!
• See Her Out (Francis and the Lights): Heard this on FX's excellent The English Teacher! Watch and Listen.
• She Looks So Perfect (5 Seconds of Summer): The dumb fun I have come to expect from 5 Second of Summer.

You can listen yourself here:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6hZRfDZm7IcrKbs52LoeR6I7gc8TRYAF&si=l0HhDjap_nYZ2tST

5 Songs from 2023

Well Q1 was a doozy, so I have finally gotten around to compiling my 5 favorite songs from 2023! Here are my 5 favorites, only 3 months late:

• "Honey," by Samia - You should listen to the whole album, but this was the gateway song!
• "Sinner," by The Last Dinner Party - From what I understand the dinner party was pretty wild.
• "Modern Girl," by Bleachers - I have already completed burned myself out on this song, but it was my top 1 for several weeks. Real Bruce Springsteen vibes.
• "103," by The Kills - Yes, very awesome.
• "My Kink Is Karma," by Chappell Roan - Dang her album is great and I am sad that her show in Boulder is sold out. Don't be like me folks.

Try listening on YouTube music?!

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6hZRfDZm7IdYZ83atCeU9t-ifJTftaTC

A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons - Ben Folds

 I have basically always loved Ben Folds' music, and he has a ton of it, so it seemed only right to give his book a read. Ben seems like the kind of person who keeps making the same mistakes over and over again, and if your his family or friend you love him but kind of cringe to see him doing the same thing again. Overall it was good. I would have liked to hear more about some of the specific songs and albums. For example, Reinhold Messner which I consider to be one of his best albums, was like a throwaway paragraph in the book!

http://www.nelsbeckman.com/books.jsp

The Cabinet - Un-su Kim

 This one took me forever to finish, I just couldn't get engaged...

www.nelsbeckman.com/books.jsp

The Maze at Windermere - Gregory Blake Smith

Took me about a third of the way through to get into it, and I read it entirely on my phone! (I started it while I was walking around the house a lot with Rory, then a baby, and finished when he was almost 2!) But eventually I liked it a like. 5 or so different stories in different time periods. Each interesting in their own right. Better together.

http://www.nelsbeckman.com/books.jsp

Easy Korean Reading For Beginners - TalkToMeInKorean

 Not at all like the others, but since this is the first Korean book I read cover to cover, I am adding it!

http://www.nelsbeckman.com/books.jsp

This Is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

 I read this in the slowest way possible, I probably could have read it in a few days but it took me months. Enjoyed it overall but a few times I got tired of the letters back and forth...

http://www.nelsbeckman.com/books.jsp